Gauff ousted on day of Wimbledon shocks as Djokovic launches history bid

LONDON: Coco Gauff crashed out of Wimbledon on a day of first-round shocks on Tuesday but defending women’s champion Barbora Krejcikova and history-chasing Novak Djokovic are up and running.

US second seed Gauff arrived at the All England Club with high hopes after winning the French Open last month but was beaten 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 by Ukranian world No. 42 Dayana Yastremska.

Other high-profile casualties on day two of the grass-court Grand Slam were women’s third seed Jessica Pegula and fifth seed Zheng Qinwen.

Instead of building on her success on the Paris clay, 21-year-old Gauff suffered her earliest Grand Slam exit since another first-round loss at Wimbledon in 2023.

The two-time Grand Slam champion said she would learn from her experience, suggesting she would like more grass-court tennis in the buildup to Wimbledon in future.

“I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards (following the French Open triumph), so I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it,” said Gauff.

“But it’s the first time in this experience of, like, coming off a win and having to play Wimbledon. I definitely learned a lot of what I would and would not do again.”

Earlier, US Open runner-up Pegula suffered a shock defeat against Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, losing 6-2, 6-3 and was followed out of the tournament by Olympic champion Zheng, who went down 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 against unheralded Katerina Siniakova.

Men’s third seed Alexander Zverev also bowed out, beaten in five sets by French world No. 72 Arthur Rinderknech, giving a bleak assessment of his state of mind after the match.

The German, who reached the Australian Open final earlier this year, suffered his